Some Lines Should Be Crossed
by DragonWinglet
Summary: "What Merlin's name-" She stopped and stared at the students lying on the floor covered in flour, marveling at the different reactions they had to this situation. Minerva McGonagall then turned on her heel and walked away, leaving behind the cheering, moping, fretting, and laughing students. -A study on the effects of the war on students not involved and inter house relationships.
1. Magic Doorway, Magic Train, Magic Friend

**New Story, Notes at the bottom! Me no own - all but OC's belong to Rowling.**

The entrance to Platform 9 ¾ was one of the most remarkable things that muggleborn Indigo Clark had ever seen. Her closest friend, who had, incidentally, also been given an invitation to the magical school, Hogwarts, was glancing around her like it was normal. Like she hadn't just run through a solid brick Indigo looked behind her, the brick gave way to a grand archway, leading to the bustling station beyond. Where normal people moved on their normal daily errands, as if that was just a regular brick wall. Like it didn't lead to an entirely new world. When she turned around, it looked just like a passageway, with a brick arch and people walking past onto their own work, unable to notice anything. Like they were normal. Like they weren't standing in a steam-filled train platform at what she'd previously assumed was just regular old King's Cross, eagerly awaiting the train that would take them to the boarding school they would soon be attending. The boarding school that would be teaching them magic. That they would be able to use for the rest of their lives. With the wands in their bags.

She was going to a magic school. To do magic homework. With her magic friends.

Indigo may or may not have been freaking out.

She felt distinctly out of place, surrounded by parents in what she'd recently found out were wizarding robes. Her own set, the robes that were uniform for all students at Hogwarts - the _wizarding robes_ she had in her bag with her _magic wand_ all resting with the books on _Transfiguration_ and _Charms_ and, her personal favorite, the _Care of Magical Creatures_. She dragged that behind herself on a cart, tugging on a lock of her brunette hair absentmindedly as she walked. Her eyes, the deep blue that she'd been named for, hadn't stopped darting around their small group, taking in all the quickly moving people that were actively practicing magic in the area around her, and her mouth, which had fallen open at the sight of Niccole disappearing into what was seemingly a brick wall had yet to close.

Niccole O'Sullivan, however, was walking next to her easily, smiling as she spoke lightly with the other girl. Her trunk was being dragged behind her, looking the same as she always did. Her stereotypically red hair was falling in her eyes, the basic boy's cut she'd gotten at the beginning of the summer having grown out long enough to be shaggy and drive Indigo insane. Her green eyes shined from behind the red framed glasses that covered her eyes, and the smirk that was always on her face firmly set in place. The dusting of freckles on her slightly round face were so numerous that her skin simply looked slightly darker than it truly was from a distance, and her red jeans and black hoodie contrasted the pale skin completely. Niccole continued chattering on, seemingly oblivious to whether or not the other girl heard her as she continued walking through the steam.

Though Niccole didn't show it, she was quite nervous about the new school, and was absolutely ecstatic that her best friend had happened to show an affinity for magic, despite being from an entirely muggle family. She wouldn't be facing what was ahead alone.

"So… my mom told me about this part," Niccole started, as if the aforementioned woman wasn't standing over them that current moment. "You get on the train, and who you choose to sit with kinda sorta determines who your friends are for the rest of your time at the school." That caused Indigo to stop, turning to stare hard at her friend.

"Wait. For the rest of the time? What happens if we sit with someone we don't like? Or we're stuck in a compartment with someone we hardly know? Or… or…" The girl slowly trailed off however, as a comforting hand fell on her shoulder.

"Indigo, it'll be okay, don't listen to my duplicitous child. It's not forever, especially since you two are facing the challenge together." Seanne O'Sullivan smiled down at them, ruffling her daughter's short hair. "And I expect both of you behave, or McGonnigal will be writing me directly. For you too, Indigo!"

She opened her mouth, as if to continue, but was cut off by the high pitched whistle of the train echoed around them, preparing to leave. It drew Indigo's eyes to the large train, and she gaped at it for a moment. It may not have been magical, but it was spectacular, and having never been on a large steam engine before, she stared at it for several seconds. Her eyes caught another girl, about their age with black hair cut even shorter than Niccole's hanging out an open window of the train. Her whole torso was out and in her hands was what seemed like a regular polaroid camera. She quickly framed shots and took them, disappearing back into the car, apparently to deposit the image somewhere inside, then immediately popping back out like a prairie dog. The strange girl seemed to just notice Indigo when her daze was broken, however, by Seanne urging them to begin moving in the direction of the machine. Before Niccole could dash off, her mother caught her by the arm, planting a kiss on top of her head.

"You better be good, Niccole." She paused and looked to Indigo. "You, on the other hand, I'm not worried about." She kissed the top of the Indigo's head and released the two, allowing them to sprint to the train, dragging their luggage behind them.

Indigo had just climbed through the door of the train behind Niccole when she heard her friend's mother shout behind them.

"I love you both! Behave!"

Niccole scoffed slightly as the pushed through the relatively crowded aisle, looking for a place to sit. It wasn't until they'd gotten to nearly the very back that they found a nearly empty compartment. The only other people in the car were a few people who had yet to notice them, or each other, it seemed. One was the girl from before, who had closed the window and was arranging the different pictures she'd taken on her knee and sorting them with a quick ease. The other was ignoring them as well, but he was completely still. There was an elf owl perched on his back, and his torso was sticking out the window, he'd apparently taken up the position after the other girl started sorting the images. The only time he moved was adjust the direction he was looking. Niccole and Indigo didn't begin speaking to one another until they'd gotten their luggage situated and taken their seats.

"So… What do you think the sorting ceremony will be like?" Indigo's voice was soft and scared as she leaned towards Niccole. The other girl smiled leaned back to Indigo, whispering conspiratorially.

"Well… I hear you have to fight a troll!" Niccole's voice raised dramatically, eyes widening comically and hands spreading apart as if in wonder. Indigo would have believed her too, had the girl arranging the pictures not spoken up with a scoff.

"As if." She'd only looked at them for a moment before refocusing her attention on the pictures in front of her, and Indigo hardly got a flash of ice blue behind thick and large black framed glasses that almost seemed too big for the young girl's face. Too soon, however, the eyes were hidden behind a curtain of hair that was too dark a black to be natural, her attention turned back to the images in front of her. Indigo stared at her, expecting the protest to turn into an explanation, then deflated as the girl made no other outward signs of continuing anything but sorting out the polaroid images in front of her. She turned back to Niccole, who had virtually deflated after being shot down from her trick and glared for a moment, before a soft voice got her attention again.

Both the elf owl's eyes and the boy, whose torso was now inside the train looked at them, both rather similar. The boy's were wide, and a soft amber, set in skin of a tan color. His black sheet of hair had been hastily thrown from framing his face, one side behind her ear, the other simply thrown from her cheek to splay itself across the chair behind her. While he was standing up, it'd probably almost brush his waist. Indigo shook her head for a moment, as if clearing it.

"Ah… I'm sorry. What did you say?" The brown eyes were slightly unnerving as they had yet to blink, and tan-skinned boy repeated himself.

"They put a sentient hat on you, it reads your mind, says where you go. It's simple, really." He spoke as if it was obvious, but Indigo was caught on the bit about a _sentient hat_ and blinked at the boy. His attention had turned from Indigo to Niccole, however, and when he spoke again, it was slightly louder.

"Truly, that was mean. You should be kinder to people coming from muggle households." Niccole let out a scoff at the chastising.

"Indigo isn't from a muggle house. She's been around my house enough to know what magic is." Indigo raised an eyebrow at her best friend's brash tone and was about to reply when there was a light tap on the door to the compartment.

When the door swung open, the four kids met the wide black eyes of a boy, already in his uniform robes, staring at each of them with a small black kitten cradled in his arms.

"Um… hello… There was nowhere else available… may I join you?" He bit his lip, almond shaped eyes darting around at each of them in turn. No one spoke for a moment, until Indigo nodded, smiling widely at the newcomer. Niccole loudly greeted him, a wide grin resting on her face.

"Hi! Name's Niccole O'Sullivan." She offered her hand, and the other boy smiled a small smile and shook it.

"Jannik. Jannik… Fawley. And this is Muffin." He said his surname hesitantly, and plowed on through the rest of the statement, proudly announcing the name of the cat. However, the girl with the pictures seemed to be stuck on his own name, eyebrows shooting up.

"Fawley?" she asked, and he didn't reply for a moment before nodding slightly. She nodded in reply, eyes narrowing.

"Name's Cara." Moments after she finished speaking, her attention again seemed grasped by the images that she had now begun putting into a small set of folders. The boy hanging out the window didn't even look up as he distractedly greeted Jannik.

"Hello, Jannik. Been a while." He nodded, slightly flustered as he gave him the barest of looks, running a hand through his shaggy blonde hair.

"Hey, Aedan. It has." He seemed to expect him to continue for a moment, but when Aedan didn't seem to want to seek any further conversation, however, and Jannik shrugged slightly, turning his attention to the two girls not currently engaged in an activity. An uncomfortable silence enveloped them for a moment, before Indigo began speaking again.

"Any idea which houses you guys want to be sorted into? Seanne told me a lot about Hogwarts..." Her voice grew in strength as she reached the end of the statement, noticing that her question had drawn the attention of the other people in the compartment, but faded into dreamy remembrance after a moment.

Niccole nodded immediately, a wide grin on her face.

"I'm going to be in Gryffindor, of course! It's the only place that someone like me would go!" Indigo smiled as Niccole stood, placing a foot on cushion of the chair, brandishing her arm as if she was holding a sword.

"I'm not surprised that you'd want to be in the house of the brave and chivalrous. What about you... Aedan? Was that right?" Aedan nodded once, and seemed to think about it for a moment.

"Honestly, I'd probably be put into Ravenclaw. I enjoy learning a lot…" he nodded after a moment, and Indigo realized that her statement was over and nodded. Jannik didn't wait for prompting, instead smiled at the attempt at creating conversation.

"Honestly, I think I'll be put in Slytherin. Simply because it's where my entire family has been. Why should I change that theme?" His voice was bitter when he spoke about his family. His eyes slowly drifted to the ground and a pink flush spread across her face as he realized what he'd said. Indigo suddenly felt the urge to move and comfort the other, but Niccole, ever oblivious, interrupter, breaking the tension easily.

"What about you Cara? What house do you think you'll be in?" Cara's attention had been grabbed by the scenery flashing outside the window - which had slowly changed from being tame and inhabited to transitioning slowly into more and more wild.

"Well, Gryffindor is everyone's dream, right? The brave ones, the heroes. And if you can't make it there, then it'll be the Ravenclaws. The clever ones, the smart ones. If not them, the Hufflepuff - because you'd rather be the loyal one, the good friend than the conniving Slytherin. The ambitious one, or the evil one" She shakes her head and returns to gazing out at the fields by the train. Indigo looked at Cara, confused, as Aedan shook his head.

"That's not true. Slytherin are ambitious, but they protect their own. And they're certainly not entirely evil, just as not all Gryffindor are heroes. It depends on the individual." His statement had fallen on deaf ears, however, and she shook her head before turning back to the rest of the group, finally carefully climbing in from the window and closing it with a satisfying _whump._

"What about you, Indigo? Where do you want to go?" The younger girl shrugged.

"I'm not sure," she began slowly, tugging at a lock of her hair. "Hufflepuff is the one known for loyalty and hard work, right?" At Niccole's nod, she continued with more confidence. "Then I'd like to be a Hufflepuff."

Cara's scoff caught her off guard.

"Why's that a problem?" At Cara's continued silence, she turned to her best friend. "Cole?" She noticed that she sounded slightly more defencive than she'd intended to, but easily dismissed it.

"Hufflepuff are where the people that don't fit in anywhere else go, duh." Cara jumped to respond, and Niccole easily dismissed the other girl's statement. Indigo glared at the other girl, and Aedan's loud sigh caught their attention, leaving them to tear their gaze away from each other. He opened his mouth to begin his protest, but Jannik beat him to speaking.

"So I hear their lake has a Giant Squid," he spoke, with a slightly excited voice and a wide grin, almost desperate to move away from the source of conflict. Indigo blinked for a moment, watching his face for any sign of misleading.

"Wait. There are magical animals too?" Her voice was incredulous, and the small titter of laughter that was easily overshadowed by the snort that echoed out of Cara. The other girl shook her head and pulled a book from her bag testily.

"Yes, of course there are." There was a laugh in Niccole's voice as she replied, but it wasn't cruel. Instead, Indigo looked to the other girl and her grin widened. "And let me tell ya, they're really really cool." Indigo's face immediately brightened as Jannik once again began speaking, smiling brightly.

"Honestly, with an entire world of new things and magic, did you expect anything different?"

Their conversations continued to ebb and flow, with eventual contributions from both Aedan and Cara on a regular basis.

By the time the express pulled smoothly into the station, they were all friendly, getting even the occasional smile from Cara, something that, when it had happened the first time, had Niccole, in characteristic dramatic form, falling from her chair and clutching her chest. Which, of course, prompted Cara to hit her in the shoulder with a heavy boot.

Of course, when they actually got off the train, the mixture of the man twice the size of any other person ushering the 'firs' years' to boats and the icy air around them had the new students shaking in their shoes again.

Niccole felt Indigo's hand slip into hers, and Niccole paused for a moment, then nodded once and reached to grab Jannik's hand. Despite his shocked expression, he smiled after a moment and seized the hand of Aedan. In moments the entire group had joined hands silently.

"Wait…" Indigo spoke quietly, as if to not shock the large man. "Aren't we going across the lake? The one with the giant squid in it?"

 **So this is going to be a rather large story, and a study on what I think students other than the Golden Trio were going through in the war. And it's an attempt at showing the houses and house interactions in a different light. Lemme know what you think - I wrote this in less than a day.**

 **If you have any questions about my OC's, leave a review or PM me, I'll get back to you.**

 **Edit 7/31/2017 - Um. I'll work more. Aeden's now male!**

 **WInglet**


	2. Candlelit Nerves

**Me no own. Notes below.**

 **CHAPTER 2**

When the school had come into view, most of the first years had lost their breaths. The castle was magnificent, flickering lights from the windows lighting up the sky around it. Not enough that it blocked out the stars, however, and Niccole glanced up at them for a calming moment. She'd always loved the stars - they'd always been there to calm her down.

The water lapping at the edge of the boats was also kind of calming, but the fact that there was possibly a giant squid in the lake and that she was about to be divided into probably the most important group in her life had Niccole squeezing Jannik and Indigo's hands harder than perhaps she should have been. She took a deep breath and looked up, smiling at the distance.

"We'll be okay, guys." Her voice was soft, but she could tell that every member of their small group had heard them, and both Indigo and Jannik nodded. The other two seemed a bit too cool to respond, but Niccole knew - hoped, rather - that she'd helped them as well. When the boats tapped against the shore, there was still time out in the biting cold as they slowly moved to the interior of the castle, then the two enormous doors opened at Hagrid's knocking hand and they were ushered to stand in an enormous entrance hall. Torches lit the wall, as Niccole knew they would, but she smiled as Indigo marvelled, openmouthed, at the lights.

Lights from the walls miraculously managed to light the room without casting much in shadow, yet the ceiling was far too high to make out. A stairway next to them led to unknown upper floors, and there were large doors, large enough for five of Hagrid to walk through.

The first years stood, shaking in their boots as taps from heels hit the ground. A woman with a severe face stood before them. Her hair was pulled back in a tight bun and her eyes narrowed at the young students. It did nothing to ease their nerves as the giant man introduced them. Professor McGonagall thanked Hagrid and turned to the kids.

Through the large door, they heard the drone of hundreds of voices, as if the rest of the school was already seated and they were just waiting for the new kids. But instead of going into that door, the woman led them into another chamber off the Entrance Hall. They were cramped and Niccole didn't quite like being pushed up against the strangers, but she met Indigo's panicked eyes and smiled reassuringly, despite her beating heart. Her attention was once again snatched by the severe woman, however, as she began speaking.

"Welcome to Hogwarts," said Professor McGonagall. "The start-of-term banquet will begin shortly, but before you take your seats in the Great Hall, you will be sorted into your houses. The Sorting is a very important ceremony because, while you are here, your house will be something like your family within Hogwarts. You will have classes with the rest of your house, sleep in your house dormitory, and spend free time in your house common room." McGonagall continued speaking, however, Niccole was distracted by Indigo's hand gripping hers.

"But… what if we're sorted into different houses? We won't be each other's family." Indigo's voice sounded genuinely distraught, as if she thought they couldn't be friends anymore.

Jannik put a hand on the other's shoulder.

"Hey, we may be sorted separately, but that doesn't mean we'll not be friends. We'll just have to make time to see each other, that's all." Indigo didn't look particularly comforted by his words, but Niccole was quickly distracted by McGonagall finishing her speech.

"The ceremony will begin shortly." She then turned on her heel and disappeared through the door.

"So… a sentient hat, right? That's all?" Indigo's anxiety was spilling out, and Niccole put an arm around her shoulders.

"Yep. They put it on your head, it yells out your house, and you're there for the seven years here." Indigo began bouncing on the balls of her feet, something she did in times of great anxiety.

"So… What house is your mom, Cole?" Niccole shrugged in reply, shaking her head slightly.

"She refused to tell me, said she only would after I was sorted and comfortable." Indigo looked like she wanted to remark, but instead her eyes widened to a size that was momentarily comical - the comic aspect was ruined, however, when she - and several other students - screamed loudly as several pale white, glowing figures floated through the wall. Niccole smiled slightly as some of the ghosts paused in front of the group, smiling slightly.

"New first years? Off to be sorted!" The man was a rather plump friar, a smile on his face as he looked over the group. At the affirmative, he smiled brightly. "Hope to see you all in Hufflepuff!"

He looked like he wanted to say quite a bit more, but before he could, McGonagall returned with a stern "Off you go now."

Looking slightly dejected, the ghosts floated off, one by one, through the wall. Then the severe woman turned her gaze onto them.

"Single file please! I'll call you, you come to the front and be ready for your sorting." Niccole began bouncing on the balls of her feet as she awaited the beginning of the sorting eagerly.

The great hall was truly remarkable - the ceiling seemed to not exist, instead showing the clouds and stars in the sky. Helping to light the room were floating candles, looking quite a bit like stars themselves. For a brief moment, Niccole stared at them, wildly wondering how they avoided getting wax in the food - until she remembered that she was a wizard at a wizard school and they had magic for things like that.

Four grand tables stretched the length of the hall, lined up with people sitting at them and chatting loudly, until they noticed that the first years, led by McGonagall had entered. At the far end of the hall, a separate table raised, looking over the rest of the students, with adults sat at it, people she assumed were the teachers. The large man, Hagrid had taken his spot at the end of the table, beaming down at the first years. In the back of her mind, she heard Indigo bordering on hyperventilating behind her, but she couldn't bring herself to care - especially when her eyes landed on the hat sitting on a stool just in front of the teacher's table.

The hat suddenly began moving as the first years stopped, and Indigo, along with several other students, gasped slightly. It took a deep breath, it seemed, despite not having a respiratory system to breathe into, and began to sing. It was a quick description of the houses, explaining to the new students the houses, and Niccole was again reminded how firmly she wished to be a part of the Gryffindor house.

Then the song was over and everyone cheered. Indigo's hand once again claimed Niccole's. The other girl was shaking. Badly. Niccole didn't react, however, and McGonagall stepped in front of them after the Hat had taken its bow and turned inanimate again. She unfurled a long piece of parchment in front of herself with a flourish and addressed the students again.

"When I call your name, you will put the Hat on and be sorted." The hall once again returned to its usual silence, first years shifting uncomfortably. "Abbott, Hannah!"

 **So like this took forever, but I'm actually working on like chapter 5 so this should get updated more frequently!**

 **I have a question - what do you think about a time skip? After their sorting and them settling in, maybe skipping to year 4 or something? Let me know!**

 **Hopefully I'll be able to update every 2 weeks.**


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